Thirdly, Because otherwise he would disown the
sayings of His Prophets, and gratify the sayings of His enemies; His Prophets
say He will take vengeance; His enemies say He will not; His Prophets say He
will remember their iniquities, and recompense them into their bosom; but His
enemies say they should do well, and they shall have peace, though they walk
after the imaginations of their own hearts, and be not so strict as the Word
commands, and do not as it saith (Deu 29:19,20). But let me tell thee, had thou
a thousand souls, and each of them was worth a thousand words, God would set
them all on a light by fire if they fall within the condemning of His Word,
and thou die without a Jesus, even the right Jesus; "for the Scriptures
cannot be broken." What! Do you think that God, Christ, Prophets, and Scriptures will lie for you? And falsify their words for thee? It will be
but ill venturing thy soul upon that.
The reasons for this are: First, because God is God, and second, because man is man.
First, Because God is perfectly just and eternally
just, perfectly holy and eternally holy, perfectly faithful and eternally
faithful; that is, without any variableness or shadow of turning, but perfectly
continued the same, and cannot as well cease to be God as to alter or change
the nature of His Godhead. As He is thus the perfection of all perfections, He
gave out His Law to be obeyed. Still, if any offend it, they fall into the
hands of His eternal justice and so must drink of His irrevocable wrath,
which is the execution of the same justice. I say, this being thus, the law
is broken, justice takes place, and so faithfulness followed to see that
execution be done, and also to testify that He is accurate, and doth denounce His
unspeakable, insupportable, and unchangeable vengeance on the party offending.
Secondly, Because thou art not as infinite as God,
but a poorly created weed that is here today and gone tomorrow, and not able to
answer God in His essence, being, and attributes, thou art bound to fall under
Him, for thy soul or body can do nothing infinite in such a way as to
satisfy this God, which is a limitless God in all His attributes.
[Misery of man by this law.]
But to declare unto you the misery of man by this
law to purpose, I do beseech you to take notice of these following particulars,
besides what has been already spoken:—First, I shall show the danger of them because of the law, as they come from Adam; Second, as they are in their own
persons, particularly under it.
[First, The danger of them because of the law, as
they come from
Adam.]
1. As they come from Adam, they are sad because he left them a broken covenant. Or take it thus: because
they did with him while they were in him break that covenant. O! This was the
treasure Adam left to his posterity; it was a broken covenant, insomuch
that death reigned over all his children, and doth still to this day, as they
come from him, both natural and eternal death (Rom 5). It may be, drunkard,
swearer, liar, thief, thou dost not think of this.
2. He did not only leave them a broken covenant but also made them sinners against it. He [Adam] made them sinners—" By
one man's disobedience many were made sinners" (Rom 5:19). And this is
worse than the first.
3. Not only so, but he did deprive them of their
strength, by which at first they were enabled to stand, and left them no more
than dead men. O helpless state! O, how beggarly and miserable are the sons of
Adam!
4. Not only so, but also before he left them, he was
the conduit pipe through which the devil conveyed his poisoned spawn and
venom nature into the hearts of Adam's sons and daughters, by which they are to
this day so strongly and so violently carried away, that they fly as fast to
Hell, and the devil, because of sin, as chaff before a mighty wind.
5. In a word, Adam led them out of their paradise, that is, one more, and put out their eyes, another, and left them to the leading of the devil. O sad! Can’t thou hear this and not have thy ears to tingle and burn on thy head? Can’t you read this and not feel your conscience throbbing and dag? If so, it is because thou art either possessed with the devil or besides thyself.
[Second.] But I pass this and come to the second thing, which is the cause of their being in a sad condition, which is because of their being in their particular persons under it.
1. Therefore, they that are under the law are
in a sad condition because they are under that which is more ready, through
our infirmity, to curse than to bless; they are under that called the
ministration of condemnation, that is, they are under that dispensation, or
administration, whose proper work is to curse and condemn, and nothing else (2
Cor 3).
2. Their condition is sad who are under the law because they are not only under that ministration that doth condemn, but also
that which doth wait an opportunity to condemn; the law doth not wait that it
might be gracious, but it doth wait to curse and condemn; it came on purpose to
discover sin, "The law entered," saith the Apostle, "that the
offense might abound" (Rom 5:20) or appear indeed to be that which God
doth hate, and also to curse for that which hath been committed; as he saith,
"Cursed is every one that continued not in all things which are written in
the book of the law to do them" (Gal 3:10).
3. They are in a sad condition because the
administration they are under that is under the law doth always find fault
with the sinner's obedience as well as his disobedience, if it is not done in a
right spirit, which they that are under that covenant cannot do, because of their being destitute of faith; therefore, I say, it doth control them, saying,
"This was not well done, this was done by the halves, this was not done
freely, and that was not done perfectly, and out of love to God." Hence, some men, notwithstanding, labor to live as holy as ever
they can according to the law. Yet, they do not live a peaceable life but are
full of condemning, full of guilt and torment of conscience, finding themselves
to fail here and to fall short there, omitting this good which the law
commands, and doing that evil which the law forbids, but never giveth them one
good word for all their pains.
